What is life like without God?
This is a question I posed recently. It has been on my mind since a recent trip to the town where I grew up. I appreciate the feedback I got back from quite a few perspectives. It's hard, but important I think, to have a mind open to someone else's point of view. I need the perspective, really. No one sees things the way they are, not completely. That takes a lot of points of view, to see things from all sides. Thanks those who responded and helped me expand my view.
I want to encourage you, and me, to take some time to deeply consider this question.
As I glanced around the internet for an image that would help me communicate this question, I got what they call in Texas an “eye full!” There were a good number of points of view that I encountered there that went well beyond the direct feedback I received, and some strange ones at that.
I know in my own life there have been many times when I felt the nearness of God, and times when He seemed so far away. My mom used to have a little plaque on her wall that said, “If you don't feel close to God, guess who moved.” While this is technically accurate, it doesn't contain an inherent solution to the problem it reveals.
We don't need to look far in our search for the answer to this problem. God is near to all of us, though in our hearts we get separated by “evil deeds.” So many are looking for meaning in life (which comes from God) in strange places. Once the Creator is removed from the equation, the creation cannot be reconciled to true purpose. We should not be surprised at this, and we can be certain that this is at the basis of questions so many struggle with, which can never be reconciled without being re-connected to God.
Whether you are soaring to the highest spiritual lofts of your life at this time, are bored and disconnected, or are offended at God, you are not beyond His reach. You cannot make yourself so. There is one God, and one mediator between God and man, the man Jesus Christ. He is the constant, and is the solution to our problems and the substance within true answers. No matter our feelings, Jesus is constant.
This doesn't say much of, or toward, the condition of those who have no knowledge of God, or of His Son, Jesus Christ. These are the ones who I had in mind when I asked the question, “What is life like without God?” I was intently general because I wanted perspective from you, which also assured multiple points of view, and various answers. A few even pointed toward solutions, which is good and helpful.
When we think about this question, do we reference our own experience? Is your answer to this question, when you think about it deeply, what your life looked like when you were in the state you are trying to describe. I think about it this way when I am trying to answer this problem. Life without God is a problem, not just a question. Jesus, in a real and complete sense, is the answer to the problem. To meet Him is the first glimpses of a possible solution, to walk with Him is when we go through the process of working out the equation, and when we are found in Him is when the problem is solved. With this problem, like a good math problem, we need quite a few sheets of paper and a good eraser, as many of our attempts at advancing the equation need guidance, and some need to be abandoned altogether.
Do you remember your life before God was in it? That is what life is like without God.
This doesn't in any way mean that God now exists because you think you met Him. He has always been there, and His grace has been extended to you your entire life. But once you meet Him, you get the benefit of observing, feeling and appreciating His nearness. There are times after we meet Him that we lose sight of this simplicity, but His grace always leads us back to it.
If you can feel in the present what you felt like in the times before you knew Him, then you can have a sense of some of what SO many others are feeling and are trapped in at this time. You can have compassion for them. You can pray for them, and hope for their rescue from the darkness inescapable by the Light unapproachable.
If you can feel in the present what it felt like when you lost your way, even after times of incredible encounters with the God of grace, then you can have a heart for those who have lost their bearing in a storm swirling all about them, threatening to be their end.
If you can feel in the present what it felt like to find your way, in whichever case, and many others given no example here, where the God of all comfort revealed Himself as kindness greater than your waywardness, love greater than your folly, life greater than your death, then you can sing! Then you can take heart! Then you can reach out! Then you can help others gain perspective!
Now you are free to use your scars as testimony of the power of Life.